Day in Paris

The short film that I decided to view was called A Day in Paris by Benoît Millot , which starts by showing an airplane arrive at an airport and then cuts to an airport terminal with a suitcase moving on its own. When the suitcase opens, it reveals a robot which becomes the character we follow. As the title ensues, we follow a robot on his adventures on a day through Paris. 

This short film uses phenomenal camera work to help show how the robot tries to make a difference in the lives of many in the big city. The beginning shots have most of the action moving towards the camera or in the general direction of the camera, but as the suitcase robot enters the scene, there is a brief use of a tracking shot to follow the suitcase until it speeds out of the shot. Once the suitcase stops, the robot enters from the right third of the screen towards the left and we have an extreme close up from the bottom of robot, tilting up which could suggest that the robot was off to do great things. The camera then has more tracking shots, but seems to be in the perspective of the robot as it passes by areas of Paris. Then the robot appears briefly, then more importantly is shown appearing from the left third to stop the traffic and allow the citizens to walk across the street at which time a brief shot from the back of the head of some citizens in rack focus with the cars and then shifts to the feet of the citizens to a medium shot of the citizens walking. After, the shot moves to various shots that tilt and others that move across from right to left watching a woman take a picture then shifts to a still picture of boats on a river. 

These boats are being observed by the robot which appears to be resting after a hard period of work. After the brief respite, the camera shifts towards another shot at the feet of some citizens as they work their way onto a train. We then see the robot riding the train and then view a construction site while the workers are pouring concrete as the robot flies by in an action shot that takes the viewers attention and then we have numerous shots out of focus or vehicles traveling on the z-axis towards the camera as the angle shifts again to the robot who is this time directing cars into a parking garage.We find the shot in selective focus as the focus shifts from the robot to the cars entering the garage. After this shot, a child is viewed playing in the sand as the robot uses a crane arm to also pick up some sand and cheers up the child. After, the robot goes through a toll booth and then through a tunnel, after which we see him zoom by the cars through selective focus yet again and then passes many buildings and emerges for the final scene in the middle of an open grass field at which point the camera shifts into deep focus and catches a long shot of the robot as it shows the pictures of all the people it helped during the day, and the camera flies into a specific shot of two construction workers that he viewed during the day.
The director uses a variety of shots in rack focus and selective focus and the meanings behind the shot as displayed in the third screen shot to draw importance to the main character. Also, the focus is used to draw attention to the next destination for our 'hero.' Additionally, the director uses few close ups, and only uses them to draw immense attention to a small detail such as the face of the robot, which defines the style of the director. Finally, the director uses the rule of thirds and rarely keeps an object stationary, as the objects usually travel on either a left to right or right to left trajectory on the x-axis.
 A Day in Paris, does not exactly fall into one category, but most commonly aligns with the drama genre. The use of a main character in a plot that concerns helping others. While the majority of the film shows little to no suspense, the viewers are left ruminating over what will finally stop the robot, and as the robot emerges into the grass field, the final scene is created with a sense of immense tranquility to finish up this piece that ends up as a film that comes of as a childish and cute drama.